Skip to main content

Katherine Finn-Gamino’s Embroidered Flowers

<< MCD@Home

Embroidering a picture of a flower onto felt.

Katherine Finn-Gamino’s Embroidered Flowers

Sponsored by
Embroidering a picture of a flower onto felt.

RECOMMENDED AGE LEVEL

Recommended for ages 6 and up with adult supervision.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Creativity Explored (CE) artist Katherine Finn-Gamino created hundreds of colorful embroidered flowers during SIP, building on skills she first learned at Creativity Explored. When viewed together, Finn-Gamino’s floral compilations amaze us, pulling our attention to individual flowers while allowing us to marvel at the impact of the work in its entirety. 

Finn-Gamino joined CE in 2011, and is a versatile artist using watercolor, ink, marker, and textiles to create unique, meaningful works of art. For this MCD@Home project, we are thrilled to focus on Finn-Gamino’s textile practice, influences of which are apparent in the artist’s designs featured in Mode Brut.

We are grateful to Finn-Gamino for teaching us about her craft and have co-authored the instructions to her felt flower embroidery practice below!

MATERIALS

  • Felt fabric
  • Needle
  • Sharpie
  • Thread/embroidery string

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Cut out a square of felt fabric.
  • Use black pen or sharpie to draw an image (flower) on the felt.
  • Thread embroidery floss through the needle, with the needle at the half-point of the floss. 
  • Knot the embroidery floss ends together. 
  • Hold felt in your non-dominant hand and needle and floss in dominant hand.
  • Begin by poking the needle through the black outline from the bottom of the felt, at whichever starting point you like.
  • Thread floss up through the felt, pull across the design, then poke needle down, through the outline. 
  • Continue pulling embroidery floss through the felt to fill in your image with your desired colors.
  • Trim and tie knot in any loose ends.
  • Once complete you can add your design to a fashion like a jacket, or textile.

RELATED RESOURCES

  • Katherine Finn-Gamino often integrates repeated shapes of different styles and sizes into her art. Learn about her process and see her work in action in this 2012 Creativity Explored video.  
  • Read more about Katherine Finn-Gamino’s experience creating for Mode Brut:
    • MCD: Where do you find inspiration? 
      • Finn-Gamino: Flowers.
    • What is your favorite material to work with? Why?
      • Fabric. I like using different colors. 
    • How do you make art and come up with your ideas?
      • I use a black pen and my head [points to head].
    • What part of making art for Mode Brut have you liked the most?
      • I like fashion.
    • What has been the hardest part about making art for Mode Brut?
      • Putting the flowers on it.

CONNECT SOCIALLY AND LEARN MORE

Share your project! Post and tag #MCDatHome

DOWNLOAD PDF INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS PROJECT
*This template is proprietary property of the Museum of Craft and Design and shall not be reproduced for any reason outside of this organization.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Stay up to date on all things MCD!